In 2020, Atlassian committed to a fully distributed model, allowing employees to work from anywhere, permanently. While many tech peers later reversed course on remote work, Atlassian optimized its approach, developing data-driven routines, rethinking office spaces, and reshaping team rituals for its 12,000 employees in 13 countries.
By 2024, these practices had moved beyond HR policy to become central to the company’s strategy. Lessons from Atlassian’s internal experiments began to shape its collaboration software, turning its workforce into an innovation lab. But selling these practices to enterprise customers posed a new challenge: unlike Atlassian’s traditional self-serve model, distributed work transformation required hands-on support, strategic advising, and cultural change, capabilities the company had not previously built into its go-to-market approach.
Harvard Business School Associate Professor Ashley Whillans joins host Brian Kenny to discuss the case “Designing the Future of Work: Atlassian’s Distributed Work Practices” and the questions Atlassian’s leaders face: how to scale what works without losing flexibility, how tightly to integrate practices into products, and how to guide customers through a distributed work transformation that requires more than software alone.
